“The razing of this station, McKim, Mead & White’s 1910 masterpiece of Beaux-Ars design, was one of the greatest traumas New York City ever suffered,” wrote New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp, in 1993. Describing the demolition of Pennsylvania Station thirty-years earlier, he continued, “Public reaction was profound and in some ways beneficial. Historical preservation was transformed from a genteel pastime to a nationwide movement with political clout.” (“In this Dream Station Future and Past Collide,” New York Times, June 20, 1993.)
Pennsylvania Station, aerial view, n.d. Terminals, Pennsylvania Station Vertical File, NYC Municipal Library.
Pennsylvania Railroad New York Station, Seventh Avenue Elevation. McKim, Mead & White, ca. 1906. Department of Buildings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Today, more than fifty years later, regret over loss of Pennsylvania Station has hardly abated. And for almost as long, archivists at the Municipal Archives believed the Manhattan Building Plans collection did not include drawings of the original Pennsylvania Station. It had been assumed that plans and permit records had been disposed after the building was demolished in accordance with Department of Buildings practice at that time. Therefore, the recent discovery of several architectural drawings of the original station in the Building Plans collection is surprising, but welcome news.
Municipal archivists have been processing the Manhattan Building Plans collection for several years. For the Record articles have described the project and provided updates on progress, most recently, in Loews Canal Street Theatre. Although relatively few in number, the recently discovered plans include several from the 1906 new building (NB) application by McKim, Mead & White as well as 1926 and 1956 alterations. One NB application plan shows an upper floor designed for Long Island Railroad (LIRR) employee recreation with a gymnasium, shuffle board, pool tables, reading room and library. The 1926 alteration plan shows details of the LIRR passage between the concourse and waiting room with brass railings, still there today. Unfortunately, the collection does not include a full set of the original NB plans, only supplemental sheets added later.
Pennsylvania Railroad New York Station, Eighth Avenue Elevation. McKim, Mead & White, ca. 1906. Department of Buildings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Pennsylvania Station, exterior, ca. 1936, WPA Federal Writers’ Project Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
The plans discovery prompted questions about what other records could be found in Municipal Archives and Library collections that document the station in the early 1960s, given the enduring interest in its demolition.
Pennsylvania Station, interior, March 13, 1936. Photographer: Ezzes. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
The Municipal Library’s vertical files proved a good resource. The file, “NYC Terminals – Pennsylvania Station” contains newspaper and magazine clippings dated from 1955 to 2003. Headlines in the early 1960s tell the sad story: “Brickbats Fly as Landmarks Tumble – Tradition-Lovers fight to Preserve Some of Little Old New York.” (World Telegram, Sept. 5, 1961.) “50 Pickets in March to Save Penn Station.” (Herald Tribune, August 3, 1962.) Articles from the 1970s took on a more elegiac tone: “It was Once a Glorious City’s Grand Portal,” (Long Island Press, July 21, 1971.)
By the 1990s, dissatisfaction with the “new” Penn Station led to calls for improvements, notably a scheme promoted by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan to re-purpose the General Post Office as a facsimile of the old station. Located directly west of Penn Station, the Post Office’s Beaux-Arts exterior resembled that of the original Pennsylvania Station: both had been designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White. It took many decades, but Moynihan’s plan, now known as the Moynihan Hall, came to fruition and opened on January 1, 2021.
Pennsylvania Railroad Co. New York Station, Passage L.I. Concourse to Main Waiting Room. Gibbs & Hill, 1926. Department of Buildings Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Given the oft-quoted statement that Municipal Archives mayoral collections provide information about every possible topic in local, national and even international history, a search of the Mayor Robert Wagner (1954-1965) collection seemed reasonable. However, a review of Wagner’s subject listings did not reveal anything that seemed pertinent to the subject.
Letter, Robert Moses, President, New York World’s Fair 1964-1965 Corporation, to Department of Parks Commissioner Newbold Morris, April 2, 1962. Department of Parks General Files. NYC Municipal Archives.
Another Municipal Archives collection often cited for its wide-ranging subject matter, the Parks Department records, proved more fruitful. The Penn Station story in the 1960s did not have any obvious connection to Parks. However, based on previous experience, the Parks collection often provided information on seemingly unrelated topics, especially when Robert Moses served as Commissioner from 1934 to 1960. During that period, the records document his wide range of responsibilities beyond parks, such as highways, airports, and housing.
Although Mayor Wagner replaced Moses with Newbold Morris as Parks Commissioner in 1960, correspondence in the collection continues to serve many research subjects. In this instance, it turned out that there was a parks-connection. The bulk of the correspondence in the early 1960s concerned an effort by Commissioner Morris to preserve some of the granite columns from the façade of the soon-to-be-demolished station.
And it should not come as a surprise that Robert Moses, then serving as President of the New York World’s Fair 1964-1965 Corporation, would have something to say about this idea as well as the impending demolition of the station. “The whole station was inconvenient. The big shed was, and is, a monstrosity. No doubt the Grand Central Station is not as fine a monument, but it is a hell of a lot better station.” He also dismissed Morris’ column preservation plan.
Memo, Stuart Constable, New York World’s Fair 1964-1965 Corporation, to Robert Moses, March 30, 1962. Department of Parks General Files. NYC Municipal Archives.
What is a little harder to explain is why the Parks folders contained copies of correspondence to Mayor Wagner about Penn Station. But they do help researchers understand city government’s role, or lack thereof, in its demise. The 1962 Parks folder includes a copy of a letter to Mayor Wagner from the Midtown Realty Owners Association expressing their enthusiastic support for “...the recently announced plans to build a new Madison Square Garden sports center and office building complex above Pennsylvania Station.” Similarly, the Thirty Fourth Street Midtown Association issued a press release reproducing a letter they sent to Mayor Wagner on August 28, 1962: “Our Association herewith expresses approval of the proposed construction of a new Madison Square Garden on the site of the Pennsylvania Station. The opposition of a small group to this improvement appears to be entirely unsound. Redevelopment of this valuable property will represent a great economic gain for the midtown area and the entire city.”
The folder also included copies of correspondence from Pennsylvania Railroad Company officials explaining their actions. They wrote that the original purpose of the station to accommodate long-distance travelers did not serve its current use as a commuter hub. Operating the station incurred an annual loss of more than $2 million. While they recognized the aesthetic value of the station, as a private enterprise, answerable to stockholders, the economics of their industry dictated replacing the “outmoded” station.
Pennsylvania Station, exterior, 1961. Mayor Robert Wagner Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
Muschamp’s 1993 Times article about Moynihan’s plan, quoted the Senator: “New York City has never got over tearing down Penn Station... it was a joy coming up from Norfolk as a young ensign”—this was in the late forties—“and arriving there.” Moynihan then referenced the often-cited quote from Vincent Scully, professor of art history at Yale. “One entered the city like a god,” Scully wrote in “American Architecture and Urbanism,” in 1969. “One scuttles in now like a rat.”
Look for future For the Record articles that explore the plan to preserve the original columns from the station, as well as the origins of the Landmark Preservation Commission.